“”People don't know how great you are. People don't know how smart you are. These are the smart people. These are the smart people. These are really the smart people. And they never like to say it, but I say it and I'm a smart person. These are the smart, we have the smartest people. We have the smartest people. And they know it. And some say it, but they hate to say it. But we have the smartest people. Government will start working again. Fixing things.

Despite his campaign mythologizing around his path to the presidency somehow "coming from outside the system" and being "free of cronyism" (imagining a Democrat-disgruntled working class being the ones to carry him into office), actual Trump supporters generally have above average incomes, typical of the same voter demographic that's always supported the GOP.[17][note 2] In American terms, Trump is pretty much styling himself as the second coming of Andrew Jackson, complete with his plan for a new Trail of Tears. In turn, Trump actually appears to have secured the conspiracy theorist vote;[18][note 3] a demographic which, these days, appears to include both himself[19] and his wife.[20]

He's loud and flashy. He's brash and a bit of a douchebag. He's a li'l bit sexist and a li'l bit racist.[note 4] He has the complexion of a bruised orange.[note 5] That's the essence of his persona, and all that anybody really knows about this "blue-collar billionaire."[21] For those who haven't swallowed his attempts at "branding" himself hook, line and sinker, it's obvious that Trump stopped being a real person sometime around the mid-1980s,[22][23] around the time he allegedly developed a diet pill addiction.[24] Trump's tendency towards using the hyper-superlative, combined with his severe disconnect from truth, give him one true superlative: his is an unsurpassed bullshit artist, and make him an exceedingly difficult candidate for winning even a seemingly trivial libel lawsuit about his alleged net worth.[25][26]

Trump's policies keep changing, but he has a consistent worldview, which is that everything is zero sum. No, really.[27] Thus — if you are weak, someone else is strong. That's the kind of worldview which abuses patriotism to justify xenophobia, consistently reasoning from false dilemma; if you're not working against other countries, then you're working against ours. If you don't want to torture Muslims, then you must hate your country.[note 6] If you'd seek out cooperation on global problems, then you must hate America by definition. To Trumpites, compromise is admitting defeat.[28] An ideology of dominance swept into power by populism — as history gently rings a bell.

The substance of Trump's candidacy has been making dick jokes and period jokes,[note 7] and giving voice to the dark, hateful side of "took ur jerbs!". He won the most number of votes for (and against) him in Republican primary history, demolishing the previous record held by George W. Bush,[29] and that's without spending much money on the race.[note 8] In a way, his supporters have treated this election as a piece of absurdist theatre — politics has become Whose Line Is It Anyway?, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

Following an escalating series of gaffes and scandals in the run-up to the Presidential election, many Republican leaders have withheld or renounced their support for his candidacy.[30] He has also been condemned by everyone from Tic Tacs[31] to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[32]

Despite all this, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States on November 8th, 2016. You wanted him, you got him.[note 9] Having single-handedly destroyed the Obama administration, the Clinton machine, the Bush dynasty, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party in the span of 18 months, Trump is now focused on the United States.[33]

Teflon Don

Trump's connections with mob figures are old and run deep, according to journalist Wayne Barrett; they're mostly associated with his casino and huge erections construction activities.[36][37][38] In 2015, the details became public of Trump's involvement with Colombo crime family figures during the making of Trump's first name-branded product: a Cadillac limousine in 1988.[39] Trump has dragged his feet over releasing will never willingly release his tax returns, and Ted Cruz suggests those returns could show the extent of his mob dealings.[40] Trump and some of his spawn have been named as material witnesses in a massive tax-avoidance scheme by mob-connected Felix Sater.[41] As an aside, it has been reported that Trump himself paid no income taxes in 1978, 1979, 1984, 1992, and 1994.[42]

In 1979, Trump hired a demolition contractor to take down the building at the future Trump Tower site.[43] The contractor used illegal, non-union Polish workers who were exposed to asbestos.[43][44] Though the site was a union site, there was no picket because it was a mob-controlled union; Trump knew that the Polish workers were illegal.[43] Trump used overpriced concrete from companies controlled by Salerno and Gambino family crime boss Paul Castellano to build Trump Tower and Trump Plaza.[43]

When Trump sought to build casinos in Atlantic City in 1982, he was able to hide his mob connections by persuading the New Jersey Attorney General John Degnan to only investigate him for the prior six months.[43] At least one Trump company has been exposed as having ties to international money laundering from an ex-Soviet Union state,[45] and it has been speculated that the Trump casinos may have been used for laundering prior to bankruptcy.[46] Trump bought land in Atlantic City at an inflated price from hit men connected to Nicky Scarfo, of the Philadelphia crime family as well as purchasing or leasing other land that likely benefitted the Scarfo mob.[43]

A Saudi prince claims he bailed Trump out twice when the mogul got into financial difficulties. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal bought up a private yacht that Trump was forced to cede to creditors during the 1990's, and later helped buy a NYC hotel when Trump was short of funds a second time. Said Saud is now embarrassed by the association.[47][48]

On January 1, 2017 Trump hosted and appeared on stage with Joey 'No Socks' Cinque at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.[49] Cinque is a Gambino crime family-affiliate who was convicted of felony possession of a trove of stolen artwork.[49]

Trump has lied on numerous occasions about his connections to organized crime, including under oath.[43][50]

Business acumen

“”In 1995, when he offered this company, if a monkey had thrown a dart, at the stock page, the monkey on average would've made 150 percent. But the people that believed in him, who listened to his siren song, ended up losing well over 90 cents in the dollar. They got back less than a dime.

It's always been a bit of mystery just how much Trump buys into his own bullshit. He estimates his net worth at "over ten billion", which is impossible for him to prove but also impossible for anyone to disprove.[note 10] This is not just based on his assets (which are not terribly liquid) but also how he feels about his worth on a daily basis.[53] The record really shows a middling businessman with a lot of structural advantages, who came out on top because of how rigged the system is.[54] It's not hard to make a lot of money in New York real estate, especially when your rich daddy gives you a big head-start. In fact, over time it becomes practically impossible to lose money.[23][55] This is relevant to his claim that he can do an exceptional job of running the US government, since he hasn't been truly tested in a situation with no fawning yes-men or training wheels.

Really, the reason the Trump Brand still exists and is fiscally solvent is because of his daughter Ivanka.[56] Supposedly his sons are both dumbasses, but she is scarily intelligent. It was her idea to start selling off the name in exchange for royalties without having to put up the capital costs of construction and running a property, something which Donald opposed but is now the cornerstone of the company, since it's effectively free money. Ivanka is obviously worried about damage to the Trump brand, since she's tried to spin out a separate sub-brand; she's the one who staged a family intervention and convinced Dad to fire his campaign manager.[57]

Trump's record on predicting economic recessions is also laughably bad:[58]

In 1999, he predicted an economic crash greater than the Great Depression.

Then, in 2001, he reversed his position and claimed the US market was strong right before a minor recession hit.

In 2005, he claimed the real estate market was strong, and followed this up with the launching of "Trump Mortgage" in 2006. Trump Mortgage subsequently went out of business when the housing market crashed the next year.

In 2011, he predicted massive inflation, suggesting the price of a loaf of bread would soon be $25.

And he has been predicting another recession since 2012.

Golf

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the real-life Auric Goldfinger has been trying to build a golf course on (what used to be) a protected wetland habitat.[59] He tried to have several of his Scottish neighbors evicted, including a local farmer by the name of Michael Forbes who refused an offer on his property. For this, Forbes was awarded "top Scot" award in 2012.[60] His actions were parodied in this song.

Since then, the Scottish government's plans to increase wind turbine capacity (his opposition to which even led to a heated discussion over Twitter with the host of the British version of The Apprentice, Lord [formerly Sir Alan] Sugar[61]) has encouraged him to cancel his plans, proving once and for all that they are worth every penny. Trump reported to Scottish authorities that he lost millions on the project, whereas in his US presidential disclosure, he claimed that the project was highly profitable.[62]

Trumped-up university

“”Even in New York, a city of shining spires to every kind of financial bullshit imaginable, it is illegal for Trump to claim that he can teach you anything.

Trump University was essentially a scam in which people were promised an education in real estate, by top experts picked by Trump himself, for an exorbitant "tuition". Salesmen were told to apply high-pressure tactics on vulnerable people. Some were encouraged to max out their credit cards, others had to cough up their disability money, etc.[64] In return, they received bare-bones real estate education from people Trump never even met, though he was very much involved in the marketing aspects.[65] He got a cut in return for these "institutions" being allowed to use his name.[66]

An even bigger issue lies with name Trump University itself and its claims to offer certain degrees: graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral. This is in violation of New York law, which requires you to obtain a charter to call yourself a university. In 2014, the New York Supreme Court held that Trump was personally liable for running an unlicensed school and making "false promises" through his university Trump Entrepreneur Initiative;[67][68] this was confirmed by the testimony of a former salesperson and the court-released "Trump University Playbook."[69][70][71] About 8000 former students are suing Trump U. in two separate class-action lawsuits, one of which involves the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.[72] In August 2016, Judge Curiel ruled that Trump must face a civil trial for fraud and racketeering under RICO, which automatically requires triple damages; things are looking very bad for Trump on this front.[73]

This is the case in which Trump attacked a “Mexican” judge’s ancestry (he's actually from Indiana) because he made a judgment Trump didn't like.[74] But all this shows is that Trump is willing to do anything to help us make him realize his American dream, even if it means ruining us financially.

“”Why isn’t this man in jail for fraud? In addition to his phony Trump University, there was also a Trump Institute, that used plagiarized materials to peddle real estate advice.

Trump faces law suits over this.[76] Trump may be liable for impeachment over this[77], even before he takes office. No, we're not sure how this works.

The pyramid scheme multilevel marketing company

In 2009, Trump "partnered" with the founders of Ideal Health International (est. 1997), a multilevel marketing business, rebranding it as The Trump Network.[78] "Partnering" in this case is just another Trumpian term of art, as it was yet one more Trump brand rental and he claimed not to be involved with the company's operations, even if what both he, company representatives and advertising for the network stated implied that there was an actual partnership "that was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity"; after the brand rental came to an end in 2012, its assets were bought off by a Canadian and rebranded.[78]

The "business", which consisted of selling a urine test device, not only made investors lose money buying the products, but also buying customized infomercials in local TV channels.[78]

Charity

As of 2015, Trump owned 30% of the Bank of America building in San Francisco, location of the "Banker's Heart" statue. Apparently, this is where he left his heart.[79][80]

As for real charities, Trump has a pattern of stiffing them:[89][90] The Donald J. Trump Foundation has actually received more donations from a single other donor (World Wrestling Entertainment) than Trump himself contributed during the period 1990 to 2009 when he gave a paltry $3.7 million.[82] In 2014, Trump personally gave $0 to his own foundation.[91]

The office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was reported to have been considering an investigation of Trump University just before requesting and receiving a $25,000 political donation from Trump himself.[92] The donation allegedly came illegally from a non-profit Trump family foundation, which is not allowed to make political donations because of its tax status.[92] It's also come out that he may not have been donating the proceeds of several business ventures to charity as he had promised to do, which could amount to fraud. This is aside from the veterans' charity snafu.[93] These include Trump U, Trump Vodka, and his new book Crippled America, all high-profile activities with profits supposedly going to benefit charity. The harsh spotlight of a presidential run is suddenly not working out for him.[94] The Trump Foundation has been illegally soliciting money in the State of New York because it is not registered to do so as required by law.[95] On October 3, 2016, the Trump Foundation was ordered to cease and desist fundraising immediately by the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office.[96] The charity did not register properly as it should have and investigations by the Washington Post suggested Trump benefited personally from spending by the charity.[97]

Jesus turns down friend request

“”"[It] was the theo-political equivalent of money laundering. Dobson and his gang are making Trump clean so that he is worthy of evangelical votes.

When asked the inevitable leading question, "What is your favorite book?" Trump answered with the usual pandering reply, "The Bible!", although he couldn't provide a favorite verse.[99] Eventually, Trump found one: "Two Corinthians" (he means Second Corinthians), which earned him an endorsement from Falwell Jr.[100]

It also leads one to wonder how frequently he takes holy communion, despite Trump’s claim of "as often as possible"[101] — quite the dedication to drinking red wine for someone who is also a teetotaler.[102]

Regarding the prospects of electing a hypothetical born-again Trump prone to fiddling with the nuclear football when bored or intoxicated, Hemant Mehta remarked that:[103]

“”If Christians do vote for the nuclear weapon-loving Trump, they probably have a better chance of meeting God real soon…

Trump's comments on George Bush having advance foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks and the lack of strategy post-9/11 from the Bush administration have led some in the right-wing news media[107] (even including self-confessed truther Alex Jones[108]) to label him a "truther", although this isn't very accurate, as Trump backtracked from some of the advance knowledge comments.[109] He also believes the famous “28 pages” redacted from the official 9/11 report were done so to please the Saudis,[110] which would appear to be partially accurate.[111]

He once recorded an audio commentary for a film that is regarded as the greatest of all time by several critics. The name of said film? Citizen Kane, of course. You can find it on YouTube.

On the bureaucracy front, he dropped a requirement that federal government agencies report on their Y2K preparedness 17 years after it came and proved to be a bit pile of nothing.[112]

It begins

George H.W. Bush started this when he considered Trump for vice president and planted the idea in his head, not realizing that Trump was some kind of Cthulhu in the making and unknowingly screwing his second son out of the chance.[113]

If there is anything this election has taught us, it's that Trump is playing Korean Starcraft while everyone else is playing checkers. He registered the slogan "Make America Great Again" six days into Barack Obama's second term.[114] There has been some (mostly baseless) speculation that Trump's entire candidacy is revenge for Obama's Roast jokes.

Testing the waters

Trump was a long-shot Republican contender for the 2012 Presidential nomination, so he could have run against Barack Obama. Then as now, Trump had no political experience, though he has a good deal of bankruptcy[116]business experience. Trump's ongoing activities were hard to reconcile with "conservative" positions: he owes a substantial portion of his wealth to his involvement in the gambling industry, and his apparel line is manufactured in the very country that he wanted to hit with punitive tariffs.[117] In 2011, he also became the first presidential hopeful to use the word "fucking" in a speech.[118]

When compared side-by-side with old Fox News personalities, it's pretty clear Trump was doing something akin to that (You suck, America! Now buy my book and I'll tell you why). Content to surf the media wave and pocket the donations,[119] Trump didn't hesitate to jump on the birther bandwagon, demanding to see Obama’s long-form birth certificate. He also believes Bill Ayers ghostwrote Dreams From My Father.[120][121]

He dropped out of the race after the aforementioned speech, which went against his work ethic heavily endorsed on The Apprentice. (Don't give up!) After NBC took The Apprentice off the air in '07, Trump returned to hawking steaks.[note 11]

2016 Presidential Run

Culled the blood of the exploited working class
But they've overcome their shyness
Now they're calling me "Your Highness"

And the world screams "Kiss me, son of God"

—They Might Be Giants

Much to the dismay of GOP power-brokers and the delight of comedians everywhere, Trump declared in June 2015 that he is again running for POTUS on the 2016 Republican Presidential ticket. Blunders and confusion mark the Trump campaign, with some even going so far as to suggest that Trump may be suffering from Alzheimer's or senile dementia due to his age;[123] since his father suffered from Alzheimer's before his death in 1999, this conspiracy theory isn't as far-fetched as it sounds...[124]

He immediately received backlash for his racist comments against Mexicanimmigrants during his announcement speech, which cost him his beauty pageant and other television deals.[125][126][127]

Trust me with donated campaign money

Trump gave $35,000 to an advertising company called Draper-Sterling. Like, from Mad Men.[128] The firm doesn't exist, and this is their address in New Hampshire. So far he has paid $4 million to himself for flying in his own plane, $200K to Trump Tower, and $400K to his country club campaign headquarters in Palm Beach. Most hilarious is $1.8 million paid to the company making/distributing Trump hats, which is owned indirectly by Trump’s son Eric.[129] Suspiciously much money ($6 million estimate) goes to Trump owned companies and Trump's family.[130] Hillary Clinton joked, "What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on? Why, himself, of course."[131]

It's like Trump is skimming off the top, except his fundraising is so bad that the "top" is the whole thing. It's also unheard-of for a major party convention to be begging for $6 million at the last minute. These should be huge yuge red flags to anyone.[132]

Platform

“”They don’t really know or care what he stands for, only that he’s an extended middle finger at the hated political class and the national GOP. He FIGHTS!... His appeal to them isn’t so much ideological as it is nihilistic.

So the thing about Donald Trump is, he's full of shit. So the error you've made, as a sane human being, is giving any consideration to his idiotic ideas. The people are being conned and misled, as is so characteristic of Trump's schemes. He has a whole AOTD chapter dedicated to making promises, no matter how grand, by drawing on the emotional side of a person. Because this is when you can start working them.[134]

Issue

"Solution"

National Security

As with most of Trump's positions, the answer is "all of the above". (America can't afford to be the world's policeman. We need to expand the military.[135])

Trump thinks we should "close up" the internet to stop ISIS. Just like that! Which likely means, Whatever I don't like will be shut down.[136]

In what Tricky Dick on a bender might mistake for a foreign policy strategy, Trump said that the way to defeat ISIS was to "bomb the shit out of them", then send [Exxon]Mobil to suck out all the oil.[137]

He advocates for civilian deaths in war, saying we should "take out their families." Further, he's talking the whole family: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, half-siblings, children, siblings-in-law, and their children. Whoever has a familial connection to the terrorist, he wants to wipe them out, regardless of their culpability.[138][139] (Clue Brick: It's also a war crime under Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention.)

The monorail wall Trump proposes to stop illegal Mexican immigrants is a non-starter. Mexico will not pay, and Pew research suggests more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than are emigrating to the United States.[145] Moreover, the majority of US construction workers are undocumented Mexican immigrants. D'oh.[146]

He's talked about the materials the wall will be built of. He's talked about putting his name on it. Metaphorically, of course.[147] The wall is about his only concrete idea (pun intended) that he has consistently campaigned on, and he's already waffling on it.

He has since doubled down, explicitly calling for a national database that registers and identifies all Muslim Americans. (We really need more Inquisitions.[148][149]) In a rally in Wisconsin, he clarified to Chris Matthews that the register wouldn't apply to wealthy Muslims. That the policy only applies to poorer Muslims might make them more disposed to fight ISIS and help MAGA![150][151] He's like the kid that just read the back of the book before writing a book report, and will literally fight you if you tell him he got the whole general plot wrong.

Trump has begun to pivot away from his earlier statements[154] ("sorta neutral") about Israel. But that's just evidence of his famous "flexibility."[155][156]

Trump also wants to Mafia-ize the U.S.'s national security posture. (It'd be a sad sight if Russia invaded you next week.) The military is oversized because of their own military adventures, and he has the gall to chastise Europe for not chipping in.[157]

Trump has hinted he may go to war if Mexico refuses to pay for nonsensical building projects.[158]

Trump said, in interviews with The Atlantic[159] and the New York Times,[160] that he would ignore NATO's defense policy if NATO members do not pay their membership fees. This completely goes against NATO's longstanding policy of providing security to all of its members, and its pledge to defend their members if those members are attacked. He has however stopped short of saying the US should actually leave NATO;[161] in effect, he wants to extort NATO allies for money.

Trump does "not so much" trust intelligence (presumably because he doesn't have any of his own), because Iraq.[162]

Economic plan

Get rid of NAFTA, NATO, NASA, the NAACP, and anything with an N.[163][164]

It's dizzying how quickly Trump has hitched himself to the Brexit campaign (right down to NAFTA's equivalent of "Article 50"). He argued that Hillary Clinton is "100% wrong" because her view of the referendum differed from the outcome, whereas Trump wisely chose the side that "won." Trump is doing the media's work for them by branding Brexit a dry run of what a Trump presidency would be like.[165] He has even gone so far as to call himself "Mr. Brexit", claiming that as the crooked media kept skewering those damn polls for the remoaners, the crooked media is skewering these damn polls over in the US for Clinton.[5]

What is his position on jobs? He's going to "bring them back!"[166] Republicans and Democrats have already dropped the ball on helping those most affected by outsourcing; Trump wants to roll back free trade and raise tariffs, but that won't necessarily fix the problem.[167][168] On the contrary, it's a threat to eliminate hundreds and thousands of American jobs.[169] Their paychecks wouldn't even keep up with inflation if they get what they want.[170] But the average voter won't look a whole lot deeper than that free trade is "killing us!"

His economic plan sounds like the work of a businessman who's made strategic use of bankruptcy.[171] It would wreak havoc on the dollar and turn US Treasury Bonds from the safest place to put your money into a risky proposition which investors would stay away from. You can't unring the bell on his plan; just ask any country that ruined their currency long-term for a short-term benefit.[172]

The Trump Tax Cuts aren't just right-wing, they're crazy-wing. They've been criticized by conservatives for the huge deficits that would result, and by liberals since the main beneficiaries of his cuts are the very wealthy.[173][174][175]

Environment

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

Jerry Brown tends to be frugal with his endorsements. Hearing Trump say asinine things regarding climate[176][177] ("there is no drought!"[178]) must have pushed him over the edge.

But when it affects Trump's golf course, then climate change IS real, it IS happening, and urgent action must be taken.[179]

Energy

Trump wants to pull out of all climate agreements, get rid of environmental regulations, and increase the use of coal (which is not surprising, given his statement that "I have friends that own the[coal] mines".[180][181] Standard GOP pandering.[182] He also states that he wants energy independence. He dislikes renewable energy, saying that "wind [turbines] kill all your birds" (a patently false claim — cats kill many times more birds) and that solar power doesn't work well (another absurd statement).[180]

So, pretty much Obamacare except that the insurance cartels companies can headquarter in whichever states have the weakest consumer protection laws and force their plans on everyone else.[185]

For all of Trump's macho-man image, this is a remarkably pusillanimous plan. Trump's candidacy is based on ditching GOP orthodoxy, but this healthcare plan is a standard Republican nothingburger that is indistinguishable from what a lot of others have offered up. This indicates that Trump does not feel secure about his position in the nomination process, and is trying to signal to the establishment that he can adopt some of their stances, too.[186]

First Amendment

It's becoming of a bit of a running gag how Trump keeps threatening to sue people who are critical of him.[187][188][189] (As you may have guessed, Trump rallies tend to be a gold mine for muckraking reporters.) So of course he wants to "open up the libel laws," which would completely undo the First Amendment, making it easier to sue media outlets that dare to criticize him.[190][191]

Since actions speak loudest, especially where Trump is concerned, what has he done in the meantime? Ejected journalists at his rallies simply for being journalists.[192]No person, no problem!

Khizr Khan's claims at the 2016 Democratic National Convention that Trump had not read the US Constitution seemed to be reinforced by Trump's comments that Khan "had no right" to claim that he had not read the Constitution – clearly not reading the First Amendment, giving him the right to free speech.[193]

Is someone protesting in a way Trump doesn't approve of, such as burning an American flag? The solution is simple: lock them up for a year or strip them of their citizenship - although the Supreme Court might take issue with the legality of such a move.[194] Come to think of it, Trump took issue with this strategy until he got elected King of the Universe President.[195]

Abortion

It sounds like the main takeaway from Paul Ryan's sit-down was that Trump agreed to nominate pro-lifers to the Supreme Court.[196] In 1999, Trump said that while he hated the concept of abortion, he viewed himself as "very pro-choice."[197]

At that aforementioned event in Wisconsin, Trump floated an idea to punish women who seek abortions. While speaking with MSNBC host Chris Matthews about how he would enforce it, he very quickly reversed the statement to say that he would make the procedure illegal and punish doctors who do so. The best part was when he said that penalties for abortion should not apply to men.[198]Shhhhh... Trump is pointing out the inherent contradiction in the conservative platform.

Now he's touting "traditional marriage"—a concept he grudgingly admits is totally alien to him.[200] He has promised to appoint judges to overturn same-sex marriage if need be,[201] despite dismissing traditional marriage as a "dead issue" in the past,[202]and attending the wedding of David Furnish and Elton John.[203]

In the Prime Universe, Trump opposed the transgender "bathroom bill," saying trans people should be free to "use the bathroom they feel is appropriate."[204] Mirror!Trump, on the other hand, says it should be up to the states.[205]

In the course of a single convoluted sentence, he managed to say we shouldn't have guns in classrooms, we should have guns in classrooms, switched back to we shouldn't, and then finally wound up saying we should.[208] The secret service had a word with Trump after he claimed that "the second amendment people" should go out and shoot Hillary Clinton.[209]

Trump and Obama/Hillary at least agree on one point: he is against allowing people on the no-fly list to buy guns, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.[210] Weakness on guns combined with anti-Latino rhetoric could possibly open up Texas, so expect this to be backtracked in a few days or hours.[211]

IRS

With Trump cratering in the polls, he suggested that we repeal the Johnson Amendment of 1954, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations (namely churches) from purchasing and running political ads. Nobody seriously expects the IRS to enforce the law, but it's meat that Trump is throwing to the evangelical wing and they're eating up like fools.[212][213] He needs them now, because a lot of them are threatening to sit out the election. Voting for a thrice-married adulterer isn't their thing.[214][215]

Trump wouldn't be able to change the law via executive action (tax law is Congress's domain), but he could order the IRS not to enforce the ban, which would amount to the same thing. That being said, it would be hilarious if American mosques started electing more Muslims to public office.

... and that, boys and girls, is how a pro-choice liberal in a shitty toupee stole the Republican Presidential Nomination.

Where did we go right?

Trump accumulates a few nuggets of cocktail party knowledge about political topics (7-11 was an inside job![216]) and sort of freewheels through it while trying to steer the conversation back to the main talking points, which are Building Stuff and Making America White Great Again®. On Baltimore, he knows that people torched a Rite-Aid.[217] On climate change, he knows the difference between climate and weather, kind of.[218] Someone back at headquarters didn't know there were two different organizations called "La Raza" and sent out orders to use that defense in the Trump U. case.[219] Trump was endorsed by the National Enquirer and has parroted their "journalism" as fact, like the thing about Cruz's father and JFK.[220] (Also, the only person directly quoted in the Enquirer hit piece is Roger Stone, who also wrote a book on how he thinks LBJ killed JFK and regularly makes appearances on Infowars.) His responses on China actually betray a sort of thought process: what he's advocating sounds like an intentional invocation of Nixon'sMadman Theory, and Nixon went to China, so we guess in Trump's head those things are somehow directly related.[221] His wife Melania's speech to the Republican National Convention was supposed to cap the RNC with a sincere defense of her husband. Instead, part of it was grabbed from Michelle Obama.[222]

There's actually considerable biographical evidence that Trump is serious about Building Stuff: sources close to him claim that he was deadly serious about the wall; the reason he likes it is that it gives him a physical thing to focus his imagination on, and he is not generally interested in abstractions.[223][224] As you'll note below, interviewers can get Trump to agree to pretty much anything, as long as they frame it as something novel.[225] He genuinely has no clue how the Executive Branch is run.

Situations keep arising for him to show what kind of leader he would make, and he keeps fumbling them; he lives in the moment and doesn't seem capable of long-term planning. The way he handled the Orlando situation is probably the best example of this.[226][227][228][229][230] Any credible Republican would spit-roast Clinton over the e-mail server and coast to the White House. Trump, instead, will posit that Bill had a bathroom quickie with Coney while the pair of them giggled about how they faked the moon landing and poisoned the populace with fluoride.[231][232] Any legitimate criticism of Clinton just gets lumped in with his never-ending miasma of conspiracy theory horseshit ("people are talking about" and "I'm just asking").

Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

“”They've been tailoring the suit for years. It just happens to fit Trump perfectly.

—Sam Seder, The Majority Report

“”I’ve got to mow my lawn.

—Sen. Jeff Flake (AZ) on skipping the Republican National Convention[240]

Bircher tactics work. If this election is a litmus test, then the entire Republican party failed it.[241] And that really gets to the heart of the problem: The "Silent Majority" has always held these beliefs under the surface. They've not been very politically active; they're too busy hating the world for changing to even bother voting. But now, Trump has re-activated that base. This is right in Trump's own wheelhouse anyway. People forget that Trump joined the Reform Party back in 1999.[242]

So now, left with no Bush or Cruz, they've swallowed hard and endorsed Trump. But you can tell their endorsements are half-hearted.
Trump might be a big player in New York real estate, but he's not a team player—the dressage crowd who somehow manage all to be related to one another (yep, even Obama is related to some of our famous political leaders). Adding to that, this is a guy who flaunts his wealth like someone who just won the lottery and has a gold-plated stroller for his kid. It's taking everything the party holds dear—capitalism, family values—and turning it into a reality TV joke.

It's having down-ticket effects that the GOP is not happy with. Not only is Trump capable of fumbling the presidency right into Clinton's hands, he may cost the GOP significantly in the legislature. Polls have Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson getting creamed by Russ Feingold in no small part because Johnson can't step out of the shadow of Trump.[243] And Trump's poisoning of the GOP won't stop after the election. Nobody knows how Paul Ryan is going to rebuild his image after an hour or more of accumulated footage where he weakly endorses Trump while simultaneously disavowing everything he says. And Christie... wow. Where to even start? He went from a contender for the White House to the guy who fetches McDonald's[244] for the blowhard who claims he saw radical Muslims in Christie's own state cheering on 9/11.[245]

The party is already fissured, and if enough people voted Trump in, career politicians would have to adopt platforms more in line with Joe Sixpack if they want to be electorally successful. And with Antonin Scalia's death, the stakes were just too high to let the presidency slip away. But now that they've accepted that they're going to lose the presidency—and suffer serious losses in the fall—the party is finally ready to take their medicine. Like a gangrenous leg you must amputate.[246][247][248][249] They are in for a very unpleasant time in Cleveland (As long as everyone is armed, we'll be fine![250][251]), and Trump will run as a zombie, but the party will emerge more-or-less intact.

Some are openly calling for the Republican Party to refuse funding to Trump and give money to other vulnerable candidates instead.[252]Serious

Trump embodies every stereotype the left has tried to stick Republicans with for years. It will be impossible to deny your party is sexist and racist when he is the standard bearer for it. Actually, not impossible. There are plenty who still deny it. Republican talking heads are half-entertaining rumors that Trump, a longtime friend of the Clintons, is actually one of the most successful political double agents ever planted.[253] It's easy to see the appeal of this theory: it's painful for conservatives to admit the party is getting its just deserts for pandering to cretins; they'd rather just pretend that it's due to Hillary's witchcraft.[254]

"I am the most militaristic person ever."

They so proudly wear this insignia.

In July 2015, Trump set the tone for the race with an attack on John McCain's military record, declaring:

“”He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured.[255]

Trump's Vietnam-era record was one of a series of draft deferments (including studying real estate at the University of Pennsylvania). This was parallelled by a seemingly unusual conversion of his fitness to serve from 1-A (available to serve) before college to 1-Y (only in time of emergency) to 4-F (unfit to serve) after college, citing a bone spur in the foot, though he no longer recalls which foot.[256][257] Trump doubled down on his comments,[258] causing Rupert Murdoch to disavow him, although Roger Ailes still hasn't let up. McCain eventually had to apologize to Trump (!) for calling his supporters crazies, which provoked this entire exchange.[259] Whoever bought his soul is going to be disappointed at how tiny it is.

So, according to Republican voters, a Vietnam vet with multiple purple hearts gets swiftboated, but a trust fund kid who mocks prisoners of war for getting caught gets a pass.

Stop and frisk

Nowhere was Trump's ineptitude on greater display then in the first debate when Trump argued in support of New York City's Stop-and-Frisk ordinance. In his rambling policy proposal, Trump showed he didn't understand the difference between local, state, and regional issues, and the limits of federal and presidential power. New York City's Stop-and-Frisk law was an anti-gun measure based on the idea that people don't kill people, guns do. Trump vehemently argued in support of this entirely local issue while campaigning for federal office, after having secured the backing of the National Rifle Association.

Then, in an effort to show understanding of African Americans' issues and concerns, Trump made the statement that Obama's hometown of Chicago had 4000 shootings since Obama came to Washington. In fact, Chicago had 4000 shootings in just the past year, and Trump was arguing for federal legislation to disarm law abiding citizens.

Trump's fellow RINO Rudy Guilliani, who evidently advised Trump on these alleged "facts", defended the stupidity while displaying his own total ignorance of America outside the New York media bubble and the New York City political milleu.

Assassinate Hillary Clinton

Trump made an ambiguous statement which has been interpreted as a call to assassinate Hillary Clinton.

Another day! Another Trump gaffe! As expected, the usual cadre of Trump sycophants were on-hand to explain why a man who speaks his mind and says what every one is really thinking didn't actually mean what he said.[261][262]

“”I fear that an unbalanced person hears that in this inflamed environment and, God forbid, thinks that was a threat. I certainly take it as a threat, I really do, and Trump needs to apologise

And he did it again! Mirroring a Tweet he'd made all the way back in January,[264] Trump once more implied that Hillary Clinton's bodyguards should be disarmed and that she should see what happens to her:[265]

“”She’s very much against the Second Amendment. She wants to destroy your Second Amendment. Guns, guns, guns, right? I think what we should do is, she goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before. I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons, they should disarm. I think they should disarm immediately. Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, OK, it would be very dangerous.

Trump's problem is his rhetoric. He is continually pushing the Overton window to his advantage, while exhibiting an "alarming willingness to use fascist themes and styles," according to the father of fascism studies.[268] (Most infamously, he retweeted and endorsed a quotation from Benito Mussolini, and when confronted about it, said "What difference does it make?") Extreme rhetoric has consequences: In general, Trump's rallies have inspired, or outright incited, an uptick in violence from his supporters all over the nation, including from his own security guards and campaign staffers. Protesters and journalists are often the intended targets.[269][270] Even when there's no violence, he expresses disappointment at the peace.[271][272] It's gotten so bad, Trump actually entertained political assassination of Hillary Clinton to keep her from appointing Supreme Court Justices, prompting the Secret Service to host a private meeting with him over his remarks.[273][274]

The earliest signs of Trump's racism can be found with his father Fred's management of The Trump Management Corporation (TMC), including violating the Fair Housing Act by preventing African Americans from renting at his properties; for Donald, this began at the time he took control of TMC from his father.[275][276] When and if this discrimination ceased is a bit murky, but lasted at least until at least 1975, and possibly as late as 1983.[275]

Guys like Marco Rubio are unable to court Trump supporters, because Rubio would never come out and refuse to condemn the KKK—even though he knows that Klansmen vote Republican. Trump can somehow not condemn the KKK and condemn them in the same day and not alienate anybody in his base:

I don't know anything about what you're even talking about... Did he endorse me, or what's going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists.[277]

Remember, a Mexican guy was beaten nearly to death in Boston last year by folks who said they did it because of Trump. Trump didn't denounce that behavior, he just said his supporters were passionate.[278] Just as he has an "out" when people question him about his comments on Mexicans (I'm just talking about the illegals!) and Muslims (I'll only ban Muslim visitors temporarily!). The general election is months away. Trump will refute these allegations for a week or so, and then people will be tired of talking about it.

My demeaning comments towards women were just show business

“”In the future, if you're wondering: "Hillary can't satisfy her husband," is when I decided to kick your ass.

In the course of the GOP debates, he openly insulted the looks of his party’s sole female contender, Carly Fiorina,[279] the menstrual cycle of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly,[280] and suggested Hillary Clinton got “schlonged” in her 2008 Democratic primary loss to Barack Obama.[281] In response, voters live-tweeted their periods to him.[282]

His followers harassed Kelly with unoriginal and sexist slurs after Trump decided not to partake in the Fox News debate.[283] Even the media have their role to play: when Kelly cut her hair, everyone knew it was in preparation for her rematch with The Don.[284] Bill Maher was right on the money when he said that if Republicans were smart, they would be running Megyn Kelly.[285]

In response to an ad that slut-shamed his wife, that the Make America Awesome Super-PAC released, Trump proceeded to attack Ted Cruz's wife.[286] Yes, Trump attacked someone who had nothing to do with the ad. Yes, he couldn't be bothered to read the fine print on the ad that clearly said "not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee."

“”The thing about the Republican’s words isn’t that they’re explicit or graphic. It’s that they’re misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing. And as my colleague David Graham notes, illegal: The candidate is describing forcing himself on women, bragging that they’re disinclined to object because of a power structure on which he knowingly capitalizes. Framing this as lewd, even extremely so, is a reminder of the frequent reluctance to name sexual assault.[287]

“”So Trump’s position is “I boast about sexually assaulting women, but when women confirm that is true, they are liars, because I was just lying all those times, and you must believe I am telling the truth, because whatever is convenient for me to say in this very moment weighs much more than what they say with witnesses, confirmation, etc., just as I weigh much more than the people I assault.”[288]

One of the women who complained that Trump groped her is suing for defamation and insists she is not a liar.[289] How will Americans succeed in respecting the office of president?

"Hispanics love me!"

During his speech in which Trump announced his bid for the presidency, Trump gained notoriety for saying (among other things):[290]

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems ... When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Naturally, such comments produced outrage among most decent people worldwide. When asked to retract his statements following protests against him at the US-Mexico border,[note 13] Trump refused, saying that "the Hispanics love me!" and that "they were chanting for me at the airport!"[291] Like the Muslims dancing on 9/11 that Trump keeps talking about, this did not happen.

Ivanka Trump later wrote a letter to Trump in private to "clarify" his position, claiming that "When Mexico sends its people" was referring to illegal immigration and not all Mexicans. When asked what the statement said, Ivanka said that:[292]

... my father has a tremendous relationship with people of Hispanic descent. You know, this is — this is something that personally was very hard for me because I know how many friends my father has who are Hispanics, how many people work at our company who are Hispanic ... He said that, you know, how many Hispanic friends he has and how many — how fortunate we are to have so many great Hispanic people working for us.

Trump was invoked by the perpetrators of a hate crime in Boston, in which two brothers assaulted a Hispanic homeless man and urinated on him before leaving him to die. While Trump's first tweet condemned the action, he followed it up with:[278]

I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that.

We would never condone violence. If that’s what happened in Boston, by no means would that be acceptable in any nature. However, we should not be ashamed to be Americans. We should be proud of our country, proud of our heritage, and continue to be the greatest country in the world.

Nope, not done yet. During a rally, when his supporters beat up a black protester while chanting "USA!" Trump can be heard demanding "Get him out of here!" while later insisting that the protester "should have been roughed up."[295] True to his word, when Trump next sent his security guards to rough up another protester, one of his stormtroopers supporters let his excitement get the best of him and belted a “Sieg Heil!” as the uppity negro was dragged away. (You could also hear another one say "Light the motherfucker on fire!")[296]

At another rally, Trump kicked out thirty black students... for being black. Literally no reason other than being black attendees at his rally; they weren't even protesting this time![297]

"I love the Muslims!"

Trump repeatedly claims without much evidence that American Muslims celebrated 9/11,[298] but what Trump advocates would be much worse. Trump argues we should ban all Muslims from heading to America, including Muslim American citizens,[299] something even Dick Cheney ("Here's a guy who did a rotten job as Vice-President..."[300]) would not advocate.[301] Joe Scarborough had to cut him off on his show.[302]

"Beautiful Jewish Baby!"

Even Bibi Netanyahu thinks Trump is out of his tree?[303] It's beautiful that Muslims and Jews can come together in their shared opposition to Donald Trump.[304] Maybe Trump is what we need to achieve peace in the Middle East, sort of like Ozymandias' squid creature in Watchmen.

Trump supports a mandatory identification database for Muslim Americans. When asked about the parallel of requiring registration of, well, Jews, Trump's ambiguous answer/non-denial was, "What do you think?"[305] For what it's worth, Trump's daughter has converted to Judaism, so file this one with "Dick Cheney puts votes ahead of his gay daughter".

"I don't know who David Duke is."

Trump's press events and rallies are magnets for cranks of all varieties. The great thing about Trump is he can be whatever you want him to be: Ronald Reagan for the normal republicans, Pinochet for the libertarians, Hitler for the fascists, Jefferson Davis for the paleocons, and a Prussian despot for the NRx!

Take Jim Sherota of Alabama, a Walter Mitty-type who stumbled into the spotlight at a rally when he told the press that he hoped President Trump would turn the border into a hunting resort and offer citizens a $50 prize for every illegal immigrant they could kill.[306]

American ayatollahPat Buchanan, 2000 Reform Party presidential nominee, has been consistently bullish on Trump's campaign.[307] Oddly, in 2000 Trump refused a nomination from the Reform Party, singling out the presence of "neo-Nazi" Buchanan as a reason for his refusal.[308]

Jim Gilchrist, head of the Minutemen border posse, has also jumped Trump's bones, thrilled to have finally found a candidate as anti-immigrant as himself.[309]

Janusz Korwin-Mikke, the Polish politician who supports Brexit and thinks the Holocaust would have been preventable if every Jew had a gun(?), also offers his support for Trump because “Clinton is supported by the Jews.”[310]

But it's not just the crypto-fascists who love him: RealNeo-Nazis of the swastika-waving, Jew-baiting, race war-daydreaming variety have jumped onboard, too![312] In a one-week analysis by Twitter analysis firm Little Bird has found out that a whopping 62% of Trump's retweets have been from accounts which believe in white genocide alone, and 58% of the top white supremacist accounts on Twitter follow Donald Trump.[313]

The chairman of the American Nazi Party loves Trump's racist proposals, but dismisses him as a candidate because he doesn't believe Trump could actually accomplish any of them.[314]

He has retweeted user @keksec_org, a white supremacist who quotes such wonderful people as Geert Wilders just as often as he does Trump, and frequently refers to "the feeble mind of the American Negro" when he is criticised on Twitter.[315]

KKK Grand Wizard Emeritus David Duke has praised Trump's supposed fight against "Jewish domination of the media", despite the fact that Trump is professedly pro-Israel and has no problems at all with his daughter converting to Judaism. (Trump disavowed Duke, but didn't seem to think association with an actual Brownshirt was that big a deal.)[316]

A segment of PBS Newshour showing first-time voter Grace Tilly and her family failed to report on some interesting tattoos on their hands: an 88 tattoo (numerical code for "Heil Hitler" in the neo-Nazi community) and Odin's Cross, a white nationalist symbol.[324] Both symbols are listed as neo-Nazi hate symbols by the Anti-Defamation League.[325][326]

Birgitt Peterson, a 69-year-old woman from Yorkville, Illinois, appeared in the Chicago Tribune doing a Nazi salute.[327] Peterson, born in West Berlin, alleged that she took offense to counterprotestors calling her a Nazi; therefore, she said "If you want to do it right, you do it right" and did a Nazi salute. Remarkably, this stunt backfired, with the image circulating on the internet showing alleged neo-Nazis at Trump's rallies (an allegation Peterson denies).[328] Donald Trump, Jr., decided to weigh in on the debate, retweeting an allegation that this was the work of Bernie Sanders supporter Portia Boulger (despite Peterson being identified in the original Chicago Tribune report[327]) and alleging that this was part of a vast left wing conspiracy against Trump, Sr., deleting his tweet without apologizing or even acknowledging his mistake. This has led to the hashtag #ApologizeTrumpJr.[329] Trump immediately apologized for his mistake... two weeks after he had posted the picture up originally.[330]

Trump tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton with what appeared to be a Star of David and a giant pile of cash, accusing Clinton of being the most corrupt politician ever. Trump decided to counter allegations of antisemitism, blaming the "dishonest Jewish-run media" for distortion,[331] and describing the star used as a "basic star", a sheriff's badge,[332] or a label from a Frozen coloring book.[333] The fact that the image originally appeared on 8chan's version of /pol/, and contained the watermark of @FishBoneHead1—whose racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic tweets on geopolitics have been in plain sight on Twitter until recently—was just a coincidence.[334]

To top off the above; as of November 2nd, the official KKK rag newspaper — The Crusader — openly endorses Trump for president.[335]

"I will never, ever forgive [the voters]"

“”Can you imagine how badly I'll feel, if I spent all of that money, all of this energy, all of this time — and LOST?

"If I lose, the election must be rigged!"

“”If Mr. Trump is suggesting that a conspiracy theory is being propagated across the country, including in places like Texas, where typically it's not Democrats who are in charge of voting booths, that's ridiculous. That doesn't make any sense, and I don't think anyone takes that seriously.

Trump refused to say one way or the other if he would concede the election if he lost. Rick Hasen of the University of California described Trump's comments as, “appalling and unprecedented” and fears there could be "violence in the streets from his supporters if Trump loses."[338][339]

The victory parade

After a win that contradicted most pre-election polls, the celebrants include a motley crew of dictators, theocrats, and extremists (horseshoe theory anyone?):[340]

The alarming nature of Trump's continuing behavior has gotten so bad since the election that psychologists have been breaking the so-called Goldwater rule in the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics against giving a clinical analysis of someone who is not their patient. John D. Gartner, a psychotherapist who formerly taught at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, has explicitly broken the rule without caveat in order to warn the public of Trump's dangerousness.[353] Gartner said, "Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president."[353] Gartner diagnosed that Trump has "malignant narcissism", an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, aggression, and sadism.[353] Many other mental health professionals have also expressed their concern over Trump's mental state.[354][355][356] Dr. Allen Frances, The chair of the DSM-IV taskforce, the one that wrote the definition of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), stated that while Trump "may be a world-class narcissist", he does not have NPD.[357][358] Dr. Allen went further to state, "He can, and should, be appropriately denounced for his ignorance, incompetence, impulsivity and pursuit of dictatorial powers."[357]

In February of 2017, New Republic even (admittedly speculatively) noted that Trump appears to meet certain behavioral signs associated with neurosyphilis.[359]

HS quarterback

“”He's like that right-wing uncle you dread seeing at Thanksgiving, just with a national media profile—and your uncle couldn't be happier about it.

The biggest Overton shift this year has been anyone believing that Donald Trump is "anti-establishment."[note 14] Liberals and conservatives are just wired differently. Republicans generally respond better to displays of strength and forthrightness, whereas Democrats generally respond better to bipartisanship and compassion.[361] For better or worse, Trump looks at life like buying a used car. You go in with bluster and threaten to walk if they don't give you what you want.

With that in mind, it's no surprise that the candidate with the best “tell it like it is” game on Twitter and in debates is pulling ahead. It's a strategy in touch with the perceptions of the GOP base. Many still think that Romney had the general election sealed up, but choked. It's why Don's portrayal of his opponents as boring, dumb, nerdy,[362] losers,[363] low-energy,[364] chokers[365] or "choke artists"[366] have been so effective.

In the minds of the base, it's never been the case that the country has become more progressive, or that 12 years of Bushes was more regime change and Reaganomics than voters ever wanted. Nope, the perception is that McCain, Romney, Bush, Rubio—these candidates all “choked,” in concert with the American people wanting them all to be President but just not knowing it yet. They're all presumed guilty of giving the country two more Democratic terms based on supposed personal and strategic failures, never on a disconnect between what voters wanted and what these candidates were selling. The RNC propping up Romney (again!) in opposition to Trump shows that they can't even grasp this basic fact about their own voters.

In Trump's defense however, Trump saved us from another Bush presidency whom Hillary probably would have had more trouble with.

Sound and fury, signifying nothing

Make America Hate Great Again

“”Somewhere, in the brimstone-caked cave where the universe weaves the threads of American politics, someone decided to give a Republican base hungry for a return to the 1980s a candidate born of and longing for that decade.

The slogan "Make America Great Again" can mean entirely different things for two people who agree on most issues, let alone for millions of people with much more varied views.

It's a fantastic slogan, because "Make America Great" doesn't mean a damn thing. It's like "support our troops". What's the converse of that? How do you rebuke a statement like that? You can't. (That's the whole point of a slogan.)

Trump's basically inviting you to pick your own evidence as to how it "isn't great" (tacit agreement) and then to fix your own temporal horizon as to when it was "great." Naturally, people will focus on a time in their own lives when things were great, and so someone who promises to restore them to that position generates a positive reception. Nostalgia is a powerful sales tool; look how many advertisers plug into it.

It's difficult to argue against that sentiment. What's the alternative? A campaign based on Let's Not Make America Great Again. If you confront it directly, you end up having to embrace it as Trump's opponents are doing. "Make America Whole" and "Make America Awesome" don't have quite the same ring, though.[368][286]

Idiocracy

According to Rolling Stone, the guy-at-the-end-of-the-bar theory of Trump is increasingly true,[22] in that he will say whatever is the opinion of Ordinary Americans—you know, idiots—sitting in a sports bar. His followers on Facebook were rated as the least grammatical of any candidate (12.6 mistakes per 100 words), barely edging out Rick Santorum (11.5 per 100).[370]

Everyone knows politicians speak in shorthand. Newspapers seldom print whole speeches these days, so speeches are typically anchored around vacuous sound bites. Trump goes one step further by talking at a third-grade reading level.[371] Everything is "terrible", "terrific", "fantastic", "horrible", "loser", "yuge", i.e., pure hyperboles. This is coming from a man who literally uttered the words "I have a very good brain" and "I went to an Ivy League school, I know so many words, I have the best words." In a statement bragging about his vocabulary, he used the word "words" instead of "vocabulary". (Palin again. I read all the best newspapers!) He tends to use a particular set of words or one simple talking point which he repeats mostly unchanged multiple times during the same thought:

The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families.[138]

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border.[372]

I’m a very smart guy, I went to the best college, I had good marks. I was a very smart guy, good student. [...] I was a really good student at the best school. I’m like a smart guy [...] If I were a liberal Democrat, people would say I’m the super genius of all time.The super genius of all time.[373]

My whole life is about winning. I always win. I win at golf. I’m a club champion many times at different clubs. I win at golf. I can sink the three-footer on the 18th hole when others can’t. My whole life is about winning. I don't lose often. I almost never lose.[374]

Trollpublicanism

“”“I’m not saying that’s a good thing, and in truth it probably says something perverse about the culture we live in. But I’m a businessman, and I learned a lesson from that experience: good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”

—The Art of the Deal (1987)

Trump has mastered the technique of False Conviction: you can get away with parodying ultra right-wing opinions if you remain absolutely committed to it. Donald will say things where it's clear he's being deliberately contrarian, but he will sell it as if it's his own full name.

The fact of the matter is that the media blew their load too early. Trump laid the bait and they could not resist: Illegal immigrant rapists, John McCain, disabled reporter, KKK disavowal, Lewandowski, Taco bowl,[note 15] John Miller, history with women, and so much more. He has systematically made the media attack him on issues which the public sees as minor or deceiving. He's built the armor himself. A great example of this was when he said more British Muslims join ISIS than the British military. The Guardian, in its rush to Stump Trump, reported[376] that 640 Muslims joined the military but only 440 have joined ISIS (if you don't count the ones that died or came back). While they're back-slapping each other for stumping that plastic American celebrity, everyone who reads that is seeing Trump's actual point being reinforced with hard numbers from a paper that clearly hates him, "so it must be true". This is part of why voters like him and think he “speaks truth to power.”

We shall overcomb

“”He’s always been that guy, and you denied it and ignored it and hand-waved it away and made excuses every step of the way because you were convinced that you were so much smarter than the rest of us. You were so certain that you had received some superior wavelength giving you special insight into the Donald; only you could tell that it was all an act. Only you could grasp that his constant courting of controversy was just to get attention from the media. Only you could instinctively sense that his style would play brilliantly in the general election and win over working-class Democrats. (SPOILER ALERT: It isn’t.) You insisted that you could “coach him”.

Trump's ability to blow up Republican sacred cows is pretty remarkable e.g. staunch conservative and shock value until the spotlight hits him, then he switches back to southpaw and blows the right-wingers away. Trump doesn't have a voting record. And human beings are really, really bad at processing information that falls outside of their heuristics and reconciling information that on its surface seems contradictory.

Therefore, if a candidate does not fall squarely into one of the two buckets we associate with politics — "conservatism" and "liberalism" — then he must be in the middle, despite not logically fitting as a "moderate" in any sense. And because many people subconsciously believe in the golden mean, Trump is using the same strategy almost every authoritarian populist has used to craft a successful coalition: pair extreme ideas from one end of the spectrum with ones that either come from the other extreme end or are appealing for their "moderation." For example, pair your extreme views on immigration with opposition to trade, or rhetoric opposing "hedge fund guys" and other selected rich capitalists who are unpopular across the board. This becomes a net win for Trump. He "tells it like it is" or "calls out both sides."
Donald is an empty suit and he invites us all to try him on:

Debate Trump: Taxes too high, wages too high. We’re not going to be able to compete against the world.[378]

Gasbag Trump-on-the-stump: The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working-class Americans . . . to earn a middle-class wage.[379]

Subtext: To those of you working 2-3 jobs at $8.00 per hour, once I deport all the illegals you're still going to be making $8.00 per hour. F**k you very much.

In 2002, Trump appeared on Howard Stern's show and voiced his support (such as it was) for the Iraq War based on the "business opportunity" in the region (as Clinton put it) in 2011. However, Trump personally had a financial interest in opposing the war in Iraq, and expressed concerns about the war soon after it had started: by 2004, it was well-known that Trump was an opponent of the Iraq War.[380] In Las Vegas, Trump swerved the entire Republican Party, blasting the war louder than any Democrat would have:

Thousands and thousands of lives, we have nothing. Wounded warriors all over the place who I love, we have nothing for it.[381]

Now, Trump uses the Iraq War as one of the most common sticks to beat Clinton with, even going to far as to suggest Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton were the "founders" of Daesh for leaving a power vacuum in the region: a power vacuum Trump also would have left, as he was calling for the immediate withdrawal of the US from Iraq as early as 2007.[382] When asked about running mate Mike Pence's decision to vote in favor of the Iraq War, Trump rather patronizingly said that Pence was "entitled to a mistake", and as for Hillary, "she's not".[383]

It's like Vietnam. Even though it was an obvious boondoggle by 1969, it wasn't until the late 70s-early 80s that criticizing the war was socially acceptable. And we're going through the same motions now that we did back then: People are claiming Iraq was a fault of execution, not the original decision to go in, which Trump is basically echoing with his We need to go in and take their oil. Even though he now talks as if it was a mistake from the beginning, because we didn't immediately pillage all the oil and their wealth.

So what are we to believe? This is not a multiverse. You have to do one or the other. Trump's seductive technique is that he establishes himself as a huckster from Day 1, but then winks and nudges you into believing that you and you alone are the one who understands his "true" positions and values. It's a little bit like the playboy who sleeps with a bunch of different girls. They let him get away with it because each of them is convinced that she's the one he really loves and the other girls are just tramps who are easily lured by such a charming guy. And, of course, each one is convinced that in the end he'll come around to his one true love. This is why his supporters cherry-pick through the heaps of manure to prove that he's not really X-Y-Z.[note 16]

Feud with HBO and Last Week Tonight

In March of 2013, Trump attacked Jon Stewart on Twitter for changing his name from Liebowitz to Stewart, tweeting:[384]

“”If Jon Stewart is so above it all & legit, why did he change his name from Jonathan Leibowitz? He should be proud of his heritage!

Two years later (in 2015), while spending a portion of May 31 embarrassingly trying too hard to flame Stewart,[385] Trump also insisted that the original tweet quoted above never took placewhile repeating the accusation, tweeting:[386]

“”All the haters and losers must admit that, unlike others, I never attacked dopey Jon Stewart for his phony last name. Would never do that!

Trump then proceeded to weave the tale that John Oliver (Stewart being the former boss and colleague of Oliver) had tried to get Trump to appear on Last Week Tonight,[387] something which Oliver maintains has never happened.[388] Oliver even checked to make sure nobody had accidentally invited him, and nobody had.

In response to all of this, on February 28 of 2016, Oliver started the #makedonalddrumpfagain campaign, explaining:[389]

"Trump" does sound rich — it's almost onomatopoeic. "Trump!" is the sound produced when a mouthy servant is slapped across the face with a wad of thousand-dollar bills. "Trump!" is the sound of a cork popping on a couple's champagnniversary, the day the renovations in the wine cellar were finally completed.

The very name "Trump" is the cornerstone of his brand. If only there were a way to uncouple that magical word from the man he really is. Well, guess what — there is! Because it turns out, the name "Trump" was not always his family's name. One biographer found that a prescient ancestor had changed it from — and this is true — Drumpf. Yes; fucking Drumpf! And "Drumpf!" is much less magical.

It's the sound produced when a morbidly obese pigeon flies into the window of the foreclosed Old Navy. "Drumpf!" It's the sound of a bottle of store brand root beer falling off the shelf in a gas station mini-mart. And it may seem weird to bring up his ancestral name, but to quote Donald Trump, "he should be proud of his heritage" — because Drumpf is much more reflective of who he actually is.

So if you are thinking of voting for Donald Trump, the charismatic guy promising to make America great again, stop and take a moment to imagine how you would feel if you just met a guy named Donald Drumpf. A litigious serial liar, with a string of broken business ventures and the support of a former Klan leader who he can't decide whether or not to condemn. Would you think he would make a good president, or is the spell now somewhat broken? And that is why tonight, I am asking America to make Donald Drumpf again!

Oliver also revealed that HBO had even officially filed paperwork to trademark the name "Drumpf." HBO has also purchased the domain donaldjdrumpf.com and released an official Chrome browser plugin called the "Drumpfinator," which changes every instance of "Trump" to "Drumpf" in the browser.[390]

Now, for people who don't know about that little spat, the Drumpf meme might come across as Stewart making fun of Trump's German ancestry. Crucially however, the serious thought underlying the (quite overtly satirical) relabeling of Trump to Drumpf is that Trump's image and persona is based on the Trump brand — and thus, if people instead knew him as Donald Drumpf (the way his family's name was spelled before the Thirty Years' War),[391] then hopefully people would stop automatically knee-jerk associating him with the fame and fortune attached to the Trump brand, and instead see the man — Donald — for who he really is as a person.[392]

The Russian connection

“”Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?

Following Trump's harsh criticisms of NATO[161] and calls for Russia to hack into opponent Hillary Clinton's email server,[395] and his belief that all Crimeansreally wanted to be with Mother Russia,[396] many news outlets have been questioning further the links Trump has with Vladimir Putin and Russia.

There are even suspicions that Russia may have enough information to blackmail Trump.[397][398]Impeachment is technically possible, but — considering Republicans control both houses of Congress — unlikely.[399]

However, some analysts believe that Russian influence on Trump is easily misoverestimated, and pointing fingers at Russia is intended to provide a convenient black-and-white image of nefarious external machinations and therefore obscure the disturbing internal processes of the US that actually led to his election.[400]

Policy advisers

“”He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that [...] He is the absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it.

“”He said Donald Trump is a genius and he is going to be the leader of the party and he's going to be the leader of the world or something [...] These characters that I'm running against said, 'We want you to disavow that statement.' I said, 'What, he called me a genius, I'm going to disavow it? Are you crazy?' [...] I think I'd have a good relationship with Putin.

Trump's Russia adviser Carter Page has made a business on dealings with Russia. Page has had a lifelong fascination of Russia from the days of the Soviet Union, and supported Putin in his writings for a while as a staunch defender of Russian intentions, and has accused the U.S. of red-baiting and adopting a Cold War mindset with regards to Russia – that, and the fact that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia affected his business dealings with Gazprom and other Russian businesses.[403]

Another Trump foreign policy advisor, retired army Lt. General Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow in 2015 in order to attend a gala banquet in honor of RT (a channel which he has appeared on regularly[408][409][410]), and was seated the head table, two seats away from Putin.[410] Michael Flynn, now the shortest-serving NSA director in history, was forced to resign after being accused of lying about never talking to the Russians during the election. Since then, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Jared Kushner, and several other Trump administration officials are receiving flak for their own connections to Russian oligarchs.

Business connections

While a large number of the Russian oligarchs aren't actually ethnic Russians, this fact does not diminish their close connection to Russia and Putin. Many were born in now-independent former Soviet States, and/or are ethnically Jewish.[412] Many of them wield the power of mobsters — for one, a person could easily end up getting iced haveing a most unfortunate accident, simply by reporting something previously unpublished about an oligarch. In fact, this happens quite a lot.[413]

According to TIME magazine, the most obvious example of Trump and his Russian satellite business' interests is Trump SoHo. TIME writes:

A lawsuit claimed that the business group, Bayrock, underpinning Trump Soho was supported by criminal Russian financial interests. While its initial claim absolved Trump of knowledge of those activities, Trump himself later took on the group's principal partner as a senior advisor in the Trump organization.

Bayrock went on to be involved with a number of Trump projects globally.[414]Tevfik Arif, born in Kazakhstan, was the founder of Bayrock Group.[415] Arif was accused of running an underageprostitution ring on his yacht, the Savarona, in 2010 by Turkish authorities; he was acquitted of all charges in 2011.[416][417] "Turkey deported nine Russian and Ukrainian women, including two under the legal age of consent, after authorities said they broke a prostitution ring aboard the Savarona…"[417]

The other development for Bayrock was the Sapir Organization, whose founder, Tamir Sapir, was from Georgia (the former Soviet republic, not the state). A Bayrock official also "brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo and three other Bayrock projects by an Icelandic firm preferred by wealthy Russians 'in favor with' President Vladimir V. Putin", according to The New York Times.[418] The suspicion surrounding the project meant that Bayrock's finance chief, Jody Kiss, sued Trump for fraud.[418] Russian-born Felix Sater, another important Bayrock figure has deep business connections to Trump; in 2010 he was a "Senior Advisor to Donald Trump".[419] Sater has two felony convictions (assault and racketeering) and organized crime ties (Genovese and Bonanno crime families).[419][420]

Alimzhan "Taiwanchik" Tokhtakhounov, an ethnic Uyghur from Uzbekistan, has been accused of running an illegal gambling operation out of Trump Tower.[421][422] Tokhtakhounov was also indicted for rigging the 2002 Olympics.[421][422] Tokhtakhounov was a VIP attendee at Trump's Miss Universe 2013 pagent held in Moscow.[421][422] He is reportedly now living in Russia and is still wanted by the FBI,[422] at least until January 20, 2016. Aras Agalarov, an ethnic Azeri, was reportedly Trump's liaison to Putin during the 2013 pageant, for which Agalarov and others paid Trump US$14 million.[423]

Trump's first real estate venture in Toronto was a partnership with two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs. "The hotel's developer, Talon International, is run by Val Levitan and Alex Shnaider, two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs. Levitan made his fortune manufacturing slot machines and creating bank note validation technology, and Shnaider earned his in the post-glasnost steel trade," wrote Toronto Life in 2013.[424]

When Trump Sr. built a tower in Panama in 2008, Trump Jr. said at a real estate conference: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia".[425]

Decline of democracy

“”[Blaming Russia for Trump] may be an Iraq-sized mistake, leading to a dangerous failure to recognize that Donald Trump's victory was an American phenomenon, not a Russian-made one.

Democracy watch dog Freedom House's report states that Trump's victory was a destabilizing threat to democracy.[427] In 2017, The Democracy Index listed the U.S. as a flawed democracy but the reduced rank was not caused by Trump.[428] The lower rank was instead caused by the same factors that won Trump the election and contribute to the rise of far-right parties in Europe.[428] That factor is the decline of trust in government.[428]

Melania Trump plagiarism controversy

“”You know, the president told me to stop whining, but I really have to say, the media is even more biased this year than ever before — ever. You want the proof? Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it — it’s fantastic. They think she’s absolutely great. My wife, Melania, gives the exact same speech — and people get on her case.

On July 18, 2016, the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump's (current) wife, Melania, gave a speech to talk about why the Donald would be the racially superior United States presidential candidate. The speech contained a paragraph that was pretty much identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.[431][432][433]

Following Melania's speech, various media outlets reported the similarities, stating that the speech was "awkward", "embarrassing" and "an act of plagiarism".[434][435] Although it took the Trump campaign a while to do so, and whilst they procrastinated 24 hours in either avoiding the subject altogether[436] or claiming that Melania's speech wasn't really plagiarism[437] (although the fact that it was plagiarism was pretty much obvious to anyone listening to or reading the speech), someone high up essentially said "You're Fired" to Melania's scriptwriters, and that was the end of that one.[438]

Becoming the Swamp

He ran on a populist platform, pledging to "Drain the swamp," meaning prevent Wall Street from controlling government. Now that he won, that means all of his supporters (and some former detractors) are lining up for sweet positions in his administration, including Wall Street.

Steve Bannon (aka, the Grim Reaper[439]) worked as an investment banker in the 1980s in the Murders and Executions[440] Mergers and Acquisitions Department of Goldman Sachs,[441] CEO of Breitbart, and Trump campaign chief, as Chief Strategist to the President.

Kellyanne Conway, former Frank Luntz propagandist and Trump campaign manager, as Counselor to the President.

John F Kelly, a retired general, as Secretary of Homeland Security.[443]

Ben Carson — Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: To his credit (if nothing else), Carson atleast admits to being a terrible pick for the job.[447] (Confirmed as nominee)

Andrew Puzder, CEO of CFK Restaurants and supporter of automation, as Secretary of Labor.

More on this story as it develops. This marks the single wealthiest Cabinet in American history, in addition to having the least experience in government.

Trumpocalypse

In just the first week of his presidency, Trump dismantled Obama's legacy and turned himself into the worst president in history. For starters, he actually enacted the Muslim ban in his first week in office.[448] When Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General, refused to comply, Trump immediately had her fired, leading to the incident being dubbed Monday Night Massacre, after the Sunday Night Massacre when Nixon fired people for not investigating the Watergate investigator. In addition, when six different judges, some of whom were Republican-appointed, ruled against the Muslim travel ban, Trump simply ignored them and ordered his government to keep enforcing the ban anyway. Eventually, he had to back down, and is in the process of revising the Muslim ban.
But atheist refugees may jump a few queues to get into the U.S. if they qualify as members of "religious minorities".[449]

Joe Arpaio: Cartoonishly-corrupt sheriff of Maricopa County. Arpaio, whose department has been sued multiple times for racist policing practices by the federal government, declared "I’m with him to the bitter end."[451]

Alex Jones: Vaunted anti-government loon, is spreading the Trump Gospel—in essence, becoming a cheerleader for torture, the surveillance state, deportations, and zero-percent corporate taxes—all in exchange for a plug from Donald on his show.[115]

Arthur Laffer: Trickle-down needs to be brutally murdered, because it won't fucking die on its own.[458] (Shouldn't you be wrecking Australia's economy right now?)

Michelle Malkin: Sees which way the wind is blowing and announced she would be "pulling the lever for Donald Trump." This from the woman who called him a "conservafraud" two years before. Others might have taken offense at Trump calling them "born stupid," but not Malkin: she couldn't Stump The Trump, and hopefully gained "wisdom" from the experience.[459]

Ted Nugent: Of course, no collection of wingnuts would be complete without Nugent.[460] Political life lessons from him are like filling the seats at the BET awards with KKK members.

Mehmet Oz - He looks healthy to me! What do you think, studio audience?

Dennis Prager: Admits he only supports Trump out of hate for the left. One of the most adamantly anti-Trump talk show hosts of the past year was, in fact... Dennis Prager.[461]

Dan Quayle: The people who know what the job actually entails want nothing to do with Trump.[462] That should tell you everything you need to know. Dan Quayle does, so there's that.[463]

Donald Rumsfeld: Trump's not doing so well in endorsements; he'll take what he can get.[464] Let's speculate on other stupid endorsements he may get. Lynndie England? Ollie North? Is G. Gordon Liddy dead yet?

Milo Yiannopoulos: Refers to Trump as "Daddy."[468] As the official spokesman for the Internet's sewer, Yiannopoulos half-jokingly yearns for a God-Emperor Trump to transform America into some sort of a fascist monarchy.[469]

Patient Zeroes

The Harvard Republican Club refused to endorse Trump which is the first time in 128 years they would not endorse the Republican candidate. "He isn’t eschewing political correctness. He is eschewing basic human decency."[470]

Rob Ford: R.I.P. He reminded us a lot of Bender when he temporarily became human.

Michele Fiore: Rule 63 is an Internet rule which states "For any given male character, there is a female version of that character." Gold-plated AKs, cigar-chomping, word salad ("ocular cavity"), quack supplements, fraud, shitposting, /pol/ following, this woman's got it all!

Rodrigo Duterte: President of the Philippines, known for being as inflammatory and authoritarian as Trump; he dominates the media and parades the same kind of "lemme clean up the establishment" (while ignoring the law) populism as Trump. His nickname is even "The Trump of the East."

Filip Dewinter: The Flemish equivalent and one that endorsed religious fundamentalists such as Staf De Clerq. He however is rather special in the sense that he went and participated in a meeting organized by Golden Dawn, something even Trump himself or anyone on this list for that matter wouldn't even dare to contemplate.

Narcissistic personality disorder: Trump isn't the kind of person who would turn down a business model centered on the idea that “Trump is a genius worth emulating.” The guy who wrote the clinical definition of NPD says Trump doesn't have NPD while still being a narcissist; there's a difference here.[472]

Ultracrepidarian: Also: hire ghost writers to write bestseller books in your name about how smart and rich you are.[473]

People

Patrick Buchanan: A failed paleoconservative presidential candidate who shares many of the same nationalistic ideas about free trade, foreign policy, and immigration.[474] Naturally, he was an early and enthusiastic Trump supporter.[475] (Buchanan and Trump were opponents in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries.)

Ronald Reagan: A B-radio and film personality who completely changed his politics to appease his masters at GE TV theater. He was picked out of a hat because the name had a high recognition value. He didn't actually decide anything, he just read the lines he was given.

Paul LePage: I miss the old LePage, straight from the 'Go LePage, talkin' 'bout the soul LePage, set all his goals LePage,[477][478] I hate the new LePage, the bad mood LePage, the always-rude LePage, spaz in the news LePage[479][480][481][482]

Notes

Trump won the Rust Belt and Appalachia, both impoverished, majority-white areas formerly reliant on unionized blue-collar jobs, and both key battleground areas;

Trump received the highest proportion of the (shrinking) union vote (43% for the Republicans vs 51% for the Democrats) a Republican has ever received since 1976 (38% vs 63%, respectively); such a vote has steadily grown since that year;

At the same time, the Democratic vote has declined due to them steadily not being able to mobilize their traditional bases, due to a variety of factors from the end of door-to-door canvassing to voter ID laws. ("Who Put Trump in the White House?", Jacobin.)

Trump's most loyal supporters are small-business owners, who are the demographic more receptive to the kind of racial and economic resentment he rode his coattails to the White House on. ("The Revenge of Joe the Plumber", Jacobin.)

↑In fact, quote: "Donald Trump supporters are 4.2 times more likely to tweet about the New World Order than Hillary Clinton supporters. Thirty-nine percent of people who tweeted the hashtag #NewWorldOrder followed Trump's Twitter account. Almost 32 percent who tweeted about #FalseFlag—that shootings and terror attacks like the Sandy Hook or Orlando massacres were staged by the government—followed Trump on social media. About 10 percent of the #FalseFlag tweeters followed Clinton."

↑In fact, searching for the term "vulgarian" on Google images almost exclusively results in pictures of Trump. (That's one heck of a search engine they got going over there!)

↑Trump's actually been very thrifty with his campaign spending, perhaps because it is his own money. He's spent less than any other candidate currently in the race except for Kasich. Clinton and Sanders are on top. Source: FEC (click Trump on the left and expenditures on the right).

↑Our favorite is when Romney called him out as a fellow politician and a businessman. Trump put on a freaking infomercial showcasing Trump Magazine, Trump Steaks, and Trump Wine/Vodka—Most of which are fake in one way or another. The steaks were probably bought from a local butcher, since they are no longer sold anywhere. The magazine he referenced was a different one from the one Romney said had failed, and has basically no distribution, existing only as a table decoration for one of his resorts. He's like that Tai Lopez guy in the YouTube ads bragging about his library and his cars; he needs to maintain the illusion to keep his business going.

↑His life's work has been about creating things and spaces exclusively for the wealthy. Trump Tower—the way the interior is laid out—is probably actually a really good illustration of how Trump thinks about politics: he thinks about the American Dream in terms of creating opportunities for people to ride in gold-plated elevators (there are literally gold-plated elevators). This might also explain something about his preoccupation with China.

↑Who could hate a man just enjoying his taco salad? He got millions of dollars' worth in publicity from this stunt alone, as media outlets tried to spin it in their own way or provide some opinion on why he made it. For God's sake, he mentioned the name of one of his restaurants in the tweet. He's just hawking his corn muffins on a free, world-sized stage.

↑Obama had a similar experience with the left wing, who saw themselves in his reflection only to get embittered when he ended up being, well, the center-left to centrist Democrat he always was.

↑ 23.023.1Kruse, Michael, "1988: The Year Donald Lost His Mind", Politico 3/11/16. Kruse: "The only thing that saved Trump from personal bankruptcy and permanent financial ruin: loans from his rich father and his siblings, and the severity, strangely, of his fiscal straits. The money was so big, the loans so brazen, that not only was he beholden to the banks—the banks were beholden to him... The banks had been just as irresponsible as he had."

↑Taibbi, "How America Made Trump Unstoppable", Rolling Stone 20/24/16. "You think the media sucks now? Just wait until reporters have to kiss a brass Trump-sphinx before they enter the White House press room."

↑Drexler, Peggy, "Lewandowski firing: Power of Ivanka?", CNN (6/20/16, Updated 8:04 PM ET). He obviously resisted firing Corey for a long time. According to CNN his own daughter (the only competent member in the family) had to threaten to leave the campaign in order to get him to do it.

↑Trump University’s ex-students give enterprise a failing grade by Nanette Asimov (March 10, 2016 Updated: March 10, 2016 9:52am) San Francisco Chronicle. "If the Democratic Party hasn't recruited a group of disgruntled Trump University students to film a commercial, they should be sued for malpractice." — Republican Bill Whalen a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution

↑Hellman, Jessie, "Trump Would Consider Letting Japan and South Korea Build Nuclear Arsenals, The Hill (3/26/.16, 03:24 pm). Donald handing out nukes like a pedophile handing out candy to kids. Particularly silly in that Japan already has all the technology and know-how to produce both a fission bomb and deliver it, but don't want to, for reasons that are obvious to anybody who's studied history.

↑Drezner, Daniel D., "Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the global economy", WaPo 8.3.15. It's the establishment versus the working class. The Republicans have catered to low-income voters for quite a while now, and those are the main demographics who are severely affected by free trade. That demographic ("small business") has been voting against their own interest by sending their jobs overseas.

↑McCormick, Joesph Patrick, "Donald Trump celebrated Elton John’s marriage in 2005". pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016. (Yes, technically this was a civil partnership and not a marriage, but Trump's easiness using the word "marriage" referring to it clearly indicates that he wasn't too bothered.)

↑Donald J. Trump (May 3, 2013). "Tweet Number 330360556362018816". Twitter. "If Jon Stewart is so above it all & legit, why did he change his name from Jonathan Leibowitz? He should be proud of his heritage!"

↑Donald J. Trump (May 31, 2015). "Tweet Number 604838076586856448". Twitter. "All the haters and losers must admit that, unlike others, I never attacked dopey Jon Stewart for his phony last name. Would never do that!"

↑Donald J. Trump (October 31, 2015). "Tweet Number 660597552023228416". Twitter. ".@thehill John Oliver had his people call to ask me to be on his very boring and low rated show. I said "NO THANKS" Waste of time & energy!"

↑Donald J. Trump (19 June 2013). "Tweet Number 347191326112112640". Twitter. "Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?"